Help through the Holidays. Daniel needs a kidney!

Hello, my name is Daniel, and thank you for considering donating to my cause.

My life changed suddenly Tuesday, November 28th , 2023. After years of struggling with nausea, migraines, and pain, I finally got too sick to ignore the signs that something serious was going on. On Thanksgiving day, my body was telling me it had had enough! My girlfriend gave me the choice: let her call an ambulance, or get chauffeured to the ER by her. I hate going to doctors, and I told myself “I am not getting in an ambulance, besides, it costs so much!” I wanted so badly to partake in family plans but there was no chance; I was sick with a migraine and vomiting until Saturday afternoon.

Sunday I went to work--felled a huge pine tree with my buddy at Mid South golf course. Tuesday morning came and I woke with the same headache as before, the same symptoms I've been struggling with for the past year. I called my colleague at 6:30 am to tell him my condition, I felt like I was letting this man down that I just met, but my health was too poor to let that get to me.

So I threw myself into my girlfriend's car and off we went to the ER in a hurry. 12 hours later, and with a blood pressure over 205/118, I was admitted to Arthur Reid Heart Center.

(I have been active and athletic my whole life, my resting heart rate is like that of an old tortoise, 115/80, so I don't even know what a high BP looks like.)

"Scared" doesn't come quite close enough to describe how I felt when nurses kept asking me if they should do everything in their power to restart my heart should it fail. A man in a white coat came to my room and said "My name Dr. Hoen-Saric, I'm a specialist, I am a kidney doctor. You came here for nausea and a migraine...do you know why a kidney doctor would be here? Your kidneys are working at less than 10 out of a hundred and if you don’t do something immediately you will die” Do you have a living will [at 44]? Are your affairs in order? And do you want us to save you when you flatline.”

...And with that, and dozens of viles of blood later, CT scans, and ultrasounds…..I was diagnosed with acute renal failure. So now these doctors give me their plan; get my b/p under control, put the valves in, get me on dialysis immediately, and find me a donor.

My life has changed drastically in the few days I have been here in the hospital and I have learned so much about blood pressure, kidneys, and how the heart plays into all of this.

For example, I still had no idea what dialysis was when a catheter was being placed into me, under my collar bone and into my heart .

I only fully understood the process when my dialysis nurse Barbara rolled this huge machine into my room and I saw the deep red blood exiting my body through plastic tubes, go into a filter, and come back into my body via my heart and the permanent catheter they placed under my collar bone.

Nurse Barbara explained that my kidneys are failing to filter out the toxins and waste that has built up through the years, so the dialysis machine is doing that for me. The process lasted 3 hours. I could potentially be doing dialysis for 5 hours or more each treatment, 3 times a week.

The life changing part:

Did I mention I'm an arborist? I have been in the tree service climbing trees, swinging from ropes, and landscaping for over 29 years.

While I may look healthy, I have not listened to my body and have neglected going to the doctor every time I’ve gotten sick. Years of wear and tear and neglect did this to an otherwise healthy, young arborist that loves his job. I just want to get back to doing what I love.

My doctors say I should get approved for disability and put on the list for a kidney transplant…or two. I am not sure how long all of this will take—in the meantime, I will be looking up at the trees from the ground.

So the donations from this campaign will go directly to rent since I will be out of work for at least two months.

I am A+ blood type, and will need a kidney ASAP.

Thank you again for reading my story and for considering to make a donation; any amount helps, even re-sharing and posting on social media would be a great help!